When the just cry out, the LORD hears them, and from all their distress he rescues them. The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
If the practice of our Catholic faith is not always an expression of desperate need, it often begins there. And it sometimes leads us back to that point. Our personal experience of confusion, uncertainty, and helplessness leaves us ready to ask for help. And when they do not, our bewilderment about what should be done, and must be done, persuades us to pray.
We were sent from Jerusalem to announce the Good News of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection to the nations. We should be like Jesus himself, a universal blessing for all the nations. Our presence in the world is supposed to make a difference. Hello?
As Lent is upon us the word sacrifice reappears. It's a religious word, like sacred and sacrament, with its roots in sacra, Latin for holy. When advertising agents assure us we can have lose weight, vacation, or buy property without sacrifice, they're treading holy ground. They're trampling the graves of forgotten ancestors.
Socrates once declared, "An unexamined life is not worth living." The Christian might reply, "A life without sacrifice is not worth living." A life which never pours blood over an altar, which never offers the first fruits of its fertility, which never risks futility in the attempt to please God, is not worth living.
But sacrifice should not be confused with investments. Farmers invest seed expecting a harvest. Students invest time and energy in an anticipated career. Capitalists invest with the expectation of profit. Parents invest in their children with the reasonable hope their children will give back in their senior years.
Sacrifice is not an investment. It is time, effort, or money given to an unseen God. It may be intentional acts of abstinence like fasting, prayer, and vigils offered to a silent God. We cannot know if the deity regards our sacrifice and might respond with grace. The Lord owes us nothing.
We do sacrifice in imitation of a God who sacrificed his only begotten son for us. It was a gesture that, despite the resurrection, still seems futile to many people. (Is the world any better since Jesus reappeared among us? What was the point?)
Always in Lent, we remember the readiness of Abraham when the LORD demanded the holocaust of Isaac. His sacrifice was matched only by the Sacrifice of Calvary.
The Christian offers the world and our God our sacrificial acts of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. They may appear useless and dead. Nothing might come of them. But we have seen where our investments took us; and bewilderment persuades us to pray.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.